Comments on: Health care debate insanity watch

By: David All

David All — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:53:37 +0000

Hasan, I guess the silence following your last question is your answer.

By: hasan prishtina

hasan prishtina — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:19:01 +0000

I understand very well and it means that certain treatments and medicines are not available on the NHS. The spectre has been raised of socialized medicine meaning that these treatments become illegal. Saying that they are not available on the NHS is not the same as saying that they are illegal. My question referred to naming "illegal medicines/treatments/surgeries that are forbidden to private patients in private health facilities in the UK in Canada but permitted in the US." Now can somebody answer it?

By: Vern

Vern — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:20:30 +0000

Don’t you read the papers, Hassan? What Israeli nurse describes has been all over them dontcha know.

By: David All

David All — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:43:09 +0000

Here is an interesting column by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post pointing out the Health Care debate is really about two issues that should be separate. Read “Behind the Rage, a Cold Reality” at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002455.html

By: Israelinurse

Israelinurse — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:20:21 +0000

Hasan -there are instances in the UK in which a person is denied a particular medicine by his local health authority -usually, but not always new cancer treatments -on the basis of the infamous post-code lottery, even if a doctor reccomends it.
If, however, the patient decides to buy these drugs privately, he is then forced to pay for any other treatment he would usually get on the NHS.
When my mother needed chemotherapy we enquired about the possibility of her having it at home instead of in hospital as our local hospital has a very bad record on MRSA, my mother detested hospitals anyway and I am qualified to administer such drugs. We were told that if we went down that route we would have to pay for every other drug besides the chemo and any other treatments she needed.

By: David All

David All — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:48:11 +0000

Richard, such sentiments are still considered okay here in this Bastion of supposed Free Enterprise.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:20:29 +0000

If anyone wants to get a glimpse (metaphorically speaking) of the inability of US conservatives to get a rational grip on the healthcare debate try the last two episodes (167-168) and listen to the garbage Meryl Yourish in particular repeats. I have actually quarrelled with the two contributers via the comments section about the lazy stories they use.
What astonishes me is that nowhere in these discussions does anyone talk about the poor? The poor in the USA cannot afford the private healthcare that they endlessly praise.

I’ve argued that there is a conservative case to be made for healthcare reform (speaking for myself, I am 100% in favour of the NHS in Britain) but that attacking the British system is stupid. They don’t know what they’re talking about, they have very strange ideas about British society and they’re all well off.
You do not argue against Obamacare by attacking the strongest examples of state healthcare. There is plenty to attack on Obamacare – try Charles Krauthammer.
But the popular conservative groups cannot articulate why they hate it so much. My gut feeling is that the bottom root of this is selfishness – “individual responsibility” equals the poor being responsible for their own penury and early deaths. These are disgusting sentiments that I thought we’d lost in the early 20th Century.

By: hasan prishtina

hasan prishtina — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:32:48 +0000

She said that there will be panels who determine whether to withhold life saving medicines/treatments/surgeries as they do in Canada and the UK. Worse, if they also make it illegal to obtain it on your own, as the also do in Canada and the UK.

This is what you said. You obviously know of these life saving medicines/treatments/surgeries available to patients in the US and “illegal to obtain on your own” in Canada and the UK. So answer the question. What are illegal medicines/treatments/surgeries that are forbidden to private patients in private health facilities in the UK in Canada but permitted in the US?

By: kmag

kmag — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:49:46 +0000

Can you name some of the illegal medicines/treatments/surgeries that are forbidden to private patients in private health facilities in the UK but allowed in the US?

Could you not mis-state what I said? Can you use google? Then use it.

By: kmag

kmag — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:48:39 +0000

Trellis: What is your point? That an uninsured US citizen in the UK would not received treatment? You make no sense because you’re obsessed with bashing the US healthcare system and then I’m suppose to read you mind? LOL

This is what I mean about the NHS being backward:

Also, a neo-natal unit would have been useless. Unless Jesus happened to be doing a shift there, they would not have been able to do anything for a baby born at 18 weeks.

Depending on what’s going on, mother could be admitted and delivery delayed until the baby is viable. At that time, a neo natal unit is critical. A mother without insurance would not be denied this.